Bandar Abdulaziz, 32, who the prince initially claimed had been attacked in the street. Photograph: Metropolitan police/PA

A Saudi prince killed his servant in a murder of "ferocity" that had a sexual element, a court heard today.

Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser al-Saud had previously subjected Bandar Abdulaziz to physical assaults and mistreatment, the Old Bailey was told.

The 32-year-old victim was found on 15 February beaten and strangled in bed at the London hotel room he was sharing with the prince.

A series of injuries, including bite marks to Abdulaziz's cheeks, revealed the "ferocity of the attack to which he had been subjected", the jury heard.

The prince at first claimed his aide had been robbed and attacked in Edgware Road three weeks before his death. But CCTV footage from a lift at the Landmark hotel in Marylebone, where they were staying, showed the victim had been subjected to a "really nasty assault" by the defendant himself on 22 January, said Jonathan Laidlaw QC, prosecuting.

It became clear to police that he had been killed "in the privacy of the room he had shared with the defendant, and when alone with him", Laidlaw said.

Further searches of CCTV footage revealed previous assaults on the victim by the defendant. The prince was arrested and detectives began trying to establish the true nature of the relationship between the men, he said.

Saud claimed they were "friends and equals" and that he, Saud, was heterosexual, jurors were told.

But Laidlaw said: "It is clear that his abuse of Bandar was not confined simply to physical beatings. There is clear evidence, over and above the bite marks, that there was also a sexual element to his mistreatment of the victim."

Laidlaw said Saud's concealment of his homosexuality might in other circumstances be explained by embarrassment or fear.

But he added: "The defendant's concealing of the sexual aspect to his abuse of the victim was for altogether more sinister reasons, and it tends to suggest that there was a sexual element to the circumstances of the killing."

Laidlaw told jurors the prince now admitted having carried out the killing, so it would be for them to decide whether he was guilty of murder or manslaughter.

The 34-year-old denies murder and one count of grievous bodily harm with intent.
The court heard that the prince and his aide had been staying together at the hotel since 20 January as part of an extended holiday.

The post-mortem examination revealed the victim had suffered heavy punches or blows to his head and face, leaving his left eye closed and swollen, his lips split and his teeth chipped and broken, Laidlaw said.

There were injuries to his ears, internal bruising and bleeding to the brain, and severe neck injuries "consistent with an episode of manual compression". There was also deep bruising to the back, a rib fracture, and trauma to the stomach caused by heavy punches or kicks, the jury was told.

Laidlaw said there were bite marks to the cheeks, the left arm, and possibly to the victim's ears, with the cheek marks having "an obvious sexual connotation".

The court heard that the victim, an orphan who had been adopted by a middle-class family, had met Saud through friends and spent the last three years travelling with him as an "occasional companion". The defendant was a member of the Saudi royal family.

"His father is a nephew of the king and his mother is a daughter of the king," Laidlaw said.